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THE PRESENCE OF LEGIO XX IN ILLYRICUM: A RECONSIDERATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2019

Nikola Cesarik
Nikola Cesarik*
Affiliation:
Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
*
[email protected]
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Extract

Since Sir Ronald Syme wrote a paper on the legions under Augustus, there has not been much development on the movement of legions in Illyricum before a.d. 9. The basic reference work on the matter is still J.J. Wilkes's Dalmatia; and the last considerable upgrade was made in this very journal—in the paper by Stephen Mitchell, who showed that legio VII was most probably one of the legions that Marcus Silvanus brought from Galatia to fight the Pannonians at the Volcaean marches in a.d. 7. Since the presence and the movements of the legions in Illyricum during the Augustan era is clouded by the lack of new discoveries of inscriptions, I find it suitable to quote L. Keppie's note from the preface of the second edition of The Making of the Roman Army: ‘The pace of epigraphic discovery has not slackened, though the number of military inscriptions which can confidently be dated to before a.d. 14 remains disappointingly small.’

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , May 2019 , pp. 278 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2019 

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Footnotes

I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Lawrence Keppie for all the help and encouragement received. I am also grateful to Professor Bruce Gibson for giving me some useful suggestions that have certainly improved the quality of this paper.

References

1 Syme, R., ‘Some notes on the legions under Augustus’, JRS 23 (1933), 14–33Google Scholar.

2 Wilkes, J.J., Dalmatia (London, 1969), 92–5Google Scholar.

3 Mitchell, S., ‘Legio VII and the garrison of Augustan Galatia’, CQ 26 (1976), 298–308CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Keppie, L., The Making of the Roman Army: from Republic to Empire (London, 1998), 10Google Scholar.

5 Marin, E., ‘Sv.Vid: starokršćanska bazilika i krstionica Narone, srednjovjekovno groblje, novovjekovna crkva’, Vjesnik za arheologiju i historiju dalmatinsku 87–9 (1998 [1994–6]), 9–94Google Scholar, at 42 no. 1; 92 figs. 76–7.

6 Malone, S.J., Legio XX Valeria Victrix: Prosopography, Archaeology and History (BAR International Series 1491) (Oxford, 2006)Google Scholar.

7 Malone (n. 6), 27–32. The inscription has been included in the Epigrafik-Datenbank Clauss-Slaby (EDCS-56900115) and in the Epigraphic Database Heidelberg (HD056711), both of which have only taken the main information from the original 1998 publication without any further analysis or providing a photograph.

8 Marin (n. 5), 9–94.

9 Marin (n. 5), 40–1.

10 Marin (n. 5), 42 no. 1. No fuller reading was proposed in the original publication, so the inscription was only presented in majuscule (as LEG XX).

11 For the development of funerary monuments in Roman Dalmatia, see Cambi, N., ‘A review of the development of the funerary monument in Dalmatia’, in Cambi, N. and Koch, G. (edd.), Funerary Sculpture of the Western Illyricum and Neighbouring Regions of the Roman Empire (Split, 2013), 17–99Google Scholar.

12 Even though, during the Early Augustan age, the word ‘veteran’ was frequently omitted from the epitaphs, which designated only the name of the legion in the ablative or in the genitive case (e.g. legione XX or legionis XX; cf. Keppie, L., Colonisation and Veteran Settlement in Italy 47–14 b.c. [London, 1983], 44–5)Google Scholar, nevertheless, in the light of the above-named considerations, it is evident that the Narona inscription is not a funerary one.

13 E.g. RIB 1428, 2012, 2209 (legio II Augusta); RIB 884, 1635, 1916, 1934, 1966, 2061 (legio VI Victrix); RIB 592, 1093 (legio XX Valeria Victrix).

14 RIB 669 (a–b). Both inscriptions record Leg(io) [VI] Vict(rix), without the verb fecit. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer of this paper, whose suggestions and criticism have definitely improved its content, especially the part about comparanda.

15 McPake, R., ‘A note on the cognomina of Legio XX’, Britannia 12 (1981), 293–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Mitchell (n. 3), 301.

17 For legio VII in Dalmatia, cf. Tončinić, D., Monuments of Legio VII in the Roman Province of Dalmatia (Split, 2011)Google Scholar.

18 Dio Cass. 60.15.4.

19 CIL 13.6924.

20 Selzer, W., Römische Steindenkmäler. Mainz in römischer Zeit (Mainz, 1988)Google Scholar, 252 no. 289. Mainz was the base of legio XIV Gemina on two occasions during the first century a.d.; cf. Franke, T., ‘Legio XIV Gemina’, in Bohec, Y. Le and Wolff, C. (edd.), Les légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire (Lyon, 2000), 191–202Google Scholar.

21 AE 1977 (1981), no. 589. (For references to L'Année Épigraphique I add in parentheses the year of publication of the volume, while the number that follows indicates the ordinal number of the inscription published in that volume.)

22 Selzer (n. 20), 252 no. 290.

23 Joseph. BJ 7.1–2. Cf. Geva, H., ‘The camp of the Tenth Legion in Jerusalem: an archaeological reconsideration’, IEJ 34 (1984), 239–54Google Scholar.

24 CIIP II.2, 725–7. The first inscription (CIIP II.2, 725) was reconstructed as [Leg(io) X] Fret(ensis) on the basis of the other two. The stone could of course be part of a much longer inscription.

25 CIIP II.2, 724.

26 See also the collection of centurial stones from Mainz, where the century is mentioned after the name of a legion: Selzer (n. 20), 252–6 nos. 288, 291–304.

27 Morillo, Á., ‘Roman army in Spain’, in Morillo, A. and Aurrecoechea, J. (edd.), The Roman Army in Hispania: An Archaeological Guide (León, 2006), 85–106Google Scholar; Morillo, Á., ‘The Roman occupation in the north of Hispania: war, military deployment and cultural integration’, in Moosbauer, G. and Wiegels, R. (edd.), Fines imperii—imperium sine fine? Römische Okkupations- und Grenzpolitik im frühen Principat (Rahden, 2011), 11–26Google Scholar.

28 Hispania Epigraphica 1998 (8 [2002]), no. 320a–b. (For references to Hispania Epigraphica I add in parentheses the volume number and in square brackets the year of publication of the volume, while the number that follows indicates the ordinal number of the inscription published in that volume.)

29 Cerdán, Á. Morillo, ‘The Augustan Spanish experience: the origin of the limes system?’, in Morillo, Á., Hanel, N. and Martín, E. (edd.), Limes XX. Estudios sobre la frontera romana. Roman frontier studies (Anejos de Gladius 13) (Madrid, 2009), 239–51Google Scholar.

30 Morillo, Á. and Sevilliano, M. Ángeles, ‘Astorga legionary fortress and Roman town’, in Morillo, A. and Aurrecoechea, J. (edd.), The Roman Army in Hispania: An Archaeological Guide (León, 2006), 290–8Google Scholar.

31 Gascon, C. Carreño, ‘Lugo camp and Roman town’, in Morillo, A. and Aurrecoechea, J. (edd.), The Roman Army in Hispania: An Archaeological Guide (León, 2006), 340–4Google Scholar.

32 Hispania Epigraphica 1997 (7 [2001]), no. 396 = Hispania Epigraphica 2010 (19 [2013]), no. 196.

33 For the photograph, see Carreño Gascon (n. 31), 343 fig. 74.

34 Plin. HN 3.28 (Asturica), 3.142 (Narona).

35 Ubi Erat Lupa, no. 17076.

36 AE 1935 (1936), no. 126 = AE 2000 (2003), no. 607.

37 Syme (n. 1), 31.

38 Suet. Aug. 20.

39 However, there is some archaeological material that proves military presence in Aquileia during the Late Republic and the Early Empire; cf. Buora, M., ‘Militaria dagli scavi delle fognature di Aquileia (1968–1972)’, in Horvat, J. (ed.), The Roman Army between the Alps and the Adriatic (Opera Instituti Archaeologici Sloveniae 31) (Ljubljana, 2016), 27–42Google Scholar, at 29–30.

40 For some new insights about the epigraphy of the Roman army in Aquileia, cf. L. Cigaina, ‘Mobilità geografica e sociale dell'esercito romano ad Aquileia: alcuni aggiornamenti sui monumenti iscritti’, in Horvat, J. (ed.), The Roman Army between the Alps and the Adriatic (Opera Instituti Archaeologici Sloveniae 31) (Ljubljana, 2016), 9–25Google Scholar.

41 Recently I have presented my observations to Professor Lawrence Keppie and his only reservation with my interpretation was the lettering on the stone, which, in his words, ‘does not resemble that in use in the Late Republic/Augustan age’, because ‘the lettering seems very ornate’. He wondered if ‘it could be part of a much larger inscription erected by or in memory of a tribune or legate of the Twentieth Legion’.

42 CIL 3.14625 = ILS 8893. For the photograph, see Patsch, C., ‘Archäologisch-epigraphische Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der römischen Provinz Dalmatien VIII’, Wissenschaftliche Mitteilungen aus Bosnien und der Herzegowina 12 (1912), 68–167Google Scholar, at 92 fig. 26.

43 AE 1986 (1989), no. 547. Cf. Fadić, I., ‘Ime prokonzula Cn. Tamphila Vále na zdencu foruma Jadera’, AArchSlov 37 (1986), 409–33Google Scholar. For the photograph, see Ubi Erat Lupa, no. 24143.

44 CIL 3.13264. For the photograph, see Ubi Erat Lupa, no. 13726.

45 ILJug 107. Several new fragments of the inscription were found during the recent excavations of the forum of Narona. For the photograph, see Marin, E., ‘Augusteum Narona’, Art Bulletin 65 (2016), 85–117Google Scholar, at 89.

46 Dodig, R., ‘Epigrafički spomenici iz naronitanskog konventa’, in Marin, E. (ed.), Arheološka istraživanja u Naroni i dolini Neretve (Zagreb, Metković and Split, 2003), 233–45Google Scholar, at 233–4; 247 fig. 1.

47 ILJug 123. For the photograph, see Demicheli, D., ‘Tiberius and his family on the epigraphic monuments from Dalmatia’, in Kovács, P. (ed.), Tiberius in Illyricum. Contributions to the History of the Danubian Provinces under Tiberius’ Reign (Budapest and Debrecen, 2017), 9–39Google Scholar, at 28 fig. 2.

48 See, for example, inscriptions from Salona: CIL 3.3198a = 10156a + 3200, CIL 3.3201 = 10159 + 3198b = 10156b (cf. Ubi Erat Lupa, no. 21500, 24429); Narona: AE 1999 (2002), no. 1223 (cf. Ubi Erat Lupa, no. 24370); Epidaurum: CIL 3.1741, ILJug 636 = AE 1964 (1965), no. 227 (cf. Glavičić, M., ‘Epigrafska baština rimskodobnog Epidaura’, Archaeologia Adriatica 2 [2008], 43–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar at 46–7, figs. 1–2); Iader: CIL 3.2908 (cf. Ubi Erat Lupa, no. 21501); Issa: ILJug 257 = AE 1964 (1965), no. 228 (cf. Ubi Erat Lupa, no. 24440).

49 Cf. the introduction of Gordon, A.E. and Gordon, J.S., Album of Dated Latin Inscriptions, Rome and the Neighbourhood, Augustus to Nerva. Volume I: Text (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1958)Google Scholar. See also Gordon, J.S. and Gordon, A.E., Contribution to the Palaeography of Latin Inscriptions (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1957)Google Scholar.

50 Marin (n. 45), 89.

51 Malone (n. 6), 32.

52 Tac. Ann. 1.39. It probably went into Germania after the Varian disaster in a.d. 9; see n. 47 above.

53 Year 20 b.c.: Manning, W., ‘The fortresses of legio XX’, in Brewer, R.J. (ed.), Roman Fortresses and their Legions (Occasional Papers of the Society of Antiquaries of London 20) (London and Cardiff, 2000), 69–81Google Scholar. Year 13 b.c.: Malone (n. 6), 31.

54 Cf. Dio Cass. 54.20.2–3.

55 Cf. Suet. Aug. 20; CIL 5.939, 948. See also AE 1977 (1981), no. 314 from Tergeste.

56 CIL 5.4365.

57 Syme (n. 1), 15–16 n. 14.

58 Cf. Dio Cass. 55.2.4.

59 Cf. Suet. Tib. 20; Inscr. Ital. 13.2.134–5, 13.2.524–5.

60 CIL 3.2030; CIL 3.2911.

61 CIL 3.2836. There is also an early inscription found at Oescus in Moesia (CIL 3.7452 = ILS 2270), which is also relevant to the debate about the movements of the legion before a.d. 6. Cf. Malone (n. 6), 30.

62 For Burnum, cf. Miletić, Ž., ‘Burnum—a military centre in the province of Dalmatia’, in Radman-Livaja, I. (ed.), Finds of the Roman Military Equipment in Croatia (Zagreb, 2010), 113–41Google Scholar.

63 Ritterling, E., ‘Legio’, RE 12 (1925), 1211–829Google Scholar, at 1770.

64 There are a few small finds (mainly pottery), found in the closed archaeological context, which can be dated prior to the Tiberian era. Most of the stamps on Samian ware from Burnum are dated after a.d. 15. The fragments that can possibly be attributed to the Late Augustan period should be analysed with caution, because they can also be dated to the Tiberian era (cf. Borzić, I., ‘Workshop stamps on Italic terra sigillata from Burnum’, Archaeologia Adriatica 7 [2013], 133–50Google Scholar). I would like to thank my colleague Igor Borzić for the information about the excavations of Burnum, especially about the pottery analysis.

65 CIL 3.9909 = 143216.

66 CIL 3.9910 = 143217.

67 For the list, cf. Betz, A., Untersuchungen zur Militärgeschichte der römischen Provinz Dalmatien (Baden bei Wien, 1939), 67–70Google Scholar, with updated discussion in Suić, M., ‘Noviji natpisi iz Burnuma’, Diadora 5 (1970), 93–128Google Scholar; and Cesarik, N., ‘The inscription of Medicus of the XIth Legion from Burnum’, Collegium Antropologicum 38 (2014), 739–44Google ScholarPubMed. For some old problems reopened, see Cesarik, N., ‘Inscriptiones falsae vel alienae from Burnum’, ZPE 199 (2016), 231–3Google Scholar.

68 There is a possibility that Burnum only served as a jumping-off point to the territory of the Delmatae during the war of a.d. 6–9, after which it became a permanent encampment of legio XI.

69 See n. 51 above.

70 CIL 3.8436. For the photograph, see Ubi Erat Lupa, no. 24245.

71 Cf. CIL 1.3358a; CIL 1.1569 = CIL 10.6011; and especially CIL 1.792 = CIL 10.3886.

72 Malone (n. 6), 28–30.

73 Consequently, the possible reading of the inscription would be: Q(uintus) Mar[---] / Serg(ia) Itali[ca] / signifer l[eg(ionis) XX(?)] / annor(um) nat(us) XX[---] / stipendiorum X[---].

74 Vell. Pat. 2.90.4; CIL 2.3414.

75 Dio Cass. 54.20.1–2; ILS 899.

76 See n. 53 above.

77 Vell. Pat. 2.109.5; Dio Cass. 54.29.1.

78 Vell. Pat. 2.112.2.

79 Of course, it could be dated to the period a.d. 6–9, if Narona was used as a jumping-off point against the Delmatae during the war.

80 According to the title Iulia in AE 1912 (1913), no. 45, the prevailing opinion is that Narona was established as a colony already in Caesar's time (cf. J.J. Wilkes, ‘The Danubian and Balkan provinces’, in CAH 102 545–85, at 574). On the other hand, Ritterling and Mann proposed that the colony was founded by Tiberius (cf. Ritterling [n. 63], 1243–4; Mann, J.C., Legionary Recruitment and Veteran Settlement during the Principate [London, 1983], 30–1Google Scholar). The earliest proof for the colonial status of Narona can be found on the inscriptions ILJug 113 and 114, dated to the beginning of Tiberius’ reign; so, at this point, neither of the possibilities can be disproven on a firm ground.

81 Cf. Patcsh, C., Zur Geschichte und Topographie von Narona (Vienna, 1907)Google Scholar.

82 ILJug 113, 114. Cf. Keppie, L., ‘The changing face of the Roman legions’, PBSR 65 (1997), 89–102Google Scholar, at 93–4 = Keppie, L., Legions and Veterans: Roman Army Papers 1971–2000 (Mavors Roman Army Researches XII) (Stuttgart, 2000), 50–63Google Scholar, at 54–5. See also Mann (n. 80), 30–1.

83 Dodig, R., ‘Roman military stamps on tiles from Ljubuški’, Opuscula Archaeologica 31 (2007 [2008]), 143–64Google Scholar, at 147–8.